Colleges and universities need to create an effective onboarding experience for new presidents to help them understand campus culture, form relationships with key stakeholders and know what's expected of them, writes Katherine Haley, the former president of Gettysburg College and Whittier College. Such steps can help a new president "gain traction" and increase their chances for success, she notes in this commentary.

Jon Christiansen, co-founder of Insights and Outcomes, identifies eight mistakes employers make that can lead employees to quit. Christiansen outlines how to avoid each of the situations, which range from putting people in the wrong roles to lacking transparency with employees.

Some simple advice such as "Don't respond until you've slept on it," holds lessons for academic leaders, writes Matt Reed, vice president for learning at Brookdale Community College. Other tidbits leaders should heed, he writes in this blog post, include, "It's not about you," and "Emails can be subpoenaed."

David Komlos and David Benjamin of Syntegrity have devised a formula for selecting diverse, efficient and effective teams from across your organization "based on their role, perspective, knowledge and expertise." Talent isn't necessarily in short supply, they argue, but the trick is selecting and assembling the right talent in the right place and time.

Collaboration between HR and IT has become more important as employers rely on data to help make decisions, including in recruiting, writes Susan Insley, vice president at VMware. "IT expertise is essential in simplifying how candidates apply for roles, how responses are generated, how invitations to interview are issued, and more," she writes.

HERC's CV/Resume Database is a rich source of diverse and highly educated job seekers. With more than 63,000 professionals in the database, you can utilize this source to proactively search for and reach out to potential faculty, staff and executive candidates. Log into your HERC Job Board account to get started.

MEMBER INSIGHT: Promote your affiliation with HERC to support dual-career couples

"Belonging to HERC has helped Wright State University create a culture where dual-career issues come to the fore early in searches, thereby avoiding more time-constrained discussions when accompanying partners are 'revealed' later in the hiring process. We highlight the assistance that HERC provides to dual-career hiring and promoting diversity by prominently linking to the HERC website on our job announcements and institutional web pages." -- Ohio-Western Pennsylvania-West Virginia HERC Member, David L. Goldstein, Ph.D., Professor and Chair Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University. Join your colleague David, and link to HERC from job announcements and institutional web pages.